Activist in pre-trial detention centre is unreasonably prevented from meeting with his relatives

Baku/04.01.23/Turan: Activist Ilhamiz Guliyev, detained in Baku pre-trial detention centre-1, is not allowed to meet with his relatives.  Gender activist and human rights defender Aygul Jafarova wrote about it on her facebook page.

According to her, Guliyev has been kept in pre-trial detention centre for a month, but he is still not allowed to meet with his relatives.  His mother travelled twice from Aghdam but was denied a meeting.

Lawyer Zibeyda Sadygova told Turan correspondent that the mother of the activist was refused a meeting on the pretext that it requires the permission of the investigator.

However, this is an unlawful demand, as the investigator's permission is not required for meetings between the detainee and his relatives. The investigator can impose a ban on meetings and telephone conversations, but in the case of Guliyev there is no such ban, the lawyer said.

The lawyer noted that according to the legislation, a prisoner is entitled to a meeting with his relatives once a week lasting 4 hours and twice a week phone conversations of 15 minutes.

"The ban on Guliyev's mother from meeting with him is absolutely illegal and in this regard we have sent complaints to the Penitentiary Service and the Ombudsman's Office," the lawyer said.

*Guliyev was detained on 4 December and on the 6th was imprisoned for four months in a larger-scale drug trafficking case.

According to human rights activists, the real reason for Guliyev's arrest was his interview with "Abzas Media", in which he said that police were using undocumented drugs to falsify criminal cases.

Note that Guliyev was presented in the interview as a former police officer. In the past, he was an unofficial assistant to a police investigator.-06B-